Have you ever wondered where City Managers go to college? In my college years, the schools that often came to mind as producers of City Managers were University of Kansas and University of North Texas. 

As part of the preparation for the launch of City Compensation, I developed a pretty large dataset of City Management contacts. One of the data points I was curious about is where do City Managers go to college. 

So I took the dataset to see. Granted this is not every city manager in the United States and it is based on self-reported data. It appears to follow age-old wisdom of where City Managers go to school. Kansas, BYU, UNC, etc, but also included some surprises with Texas State and Central Michigan coming in strong. 

I reviewed the backgrounds of more than 750 active city managers for this post.

Chart of Top Colleges for City Managers

750 City Managers is by no means all of us, but it is a pretty decent sampling. 

Here are the schools that made “honorable mention” with between 5 – 19 City Managers: 

  • University of Texas at Austin
  • University of Indiana-Bloomington
  • UCLA
  • University of South Carolina
  • University of Florida
  • University of Maryland-College Park
  • Harvard University
  • University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
  • Kent State University
  • University of Arizona
  • Northwestern University
  • Rutgers University
  • Syracuse University

 

It is possible that I missed a school or two. If I missed your alma mater, drop me a note at bradley@citycompensation.com and I will revise if needed. 

 

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